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What We’re Reading: Last Week’s Insight Trip to Colombia & Nicaragua
Opportunity International staff and contributors just returned this week from the first Insight Trip of 2012. Their travel adventure took them to Colombia and Nicaragua where they experienced microfinance firsthand and met our staff and clients. Four of our travelers published their personal accounts and reflections on a travel blog at adventuringincolombianicaragua.tumblr.com and we’ve loved reading each Read more…
Tagged Adventuring in Colombia & Nicaragua, Agricultural finance, Blog, Clients, Colombia, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Insight Trip, Latin America, Loans, local staff, Microfinance, Nicaragua, ojala, Opportunity Colombia, Opportunity International, Opportunity Nicaragua, Poverty, Savings, Training, Travel, Trust Groups, Tumblr
Top 5 Highlights from Opportunity’s 2011 in Review
As we take the first steps into 2012, it’s good to see where Opportunity International ventured on the road of 2011. We ran all over the globe and hiked into new territory both literally and figuratively. We celebrated milestones, and went to new heights, for the sake of our clients and the sustainable work of Read more…
Tagged 40th anniversary, 40th anniversary year-end campaign 2011, Africa, Banking on Women, Clients, Devex, Empact, Empact 100, Ending Poverty, Events, Financial services, Future of Entrepreneurship Summit, India, Insight Trip, International Women's Day, Jump for Opportunity, Microensure, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Richard Leftley, Side by Side, sustainable finance award, USA Today, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Why is Microinsurance a Powerful Safety Net for Clients?
Last week, Opportunity supporters and staff dialed in for a lunchtime conference call with Richard Leftley, the president and CEO of MicroEnsure, Opportunity’s microinsurance subsidiary. Leftley shared background on MicroEnsure’s growth in recent years and then answered callers’ questions on what he envisions for the organization’s future. He detailed how insurance is an indispensable tool Read more…
Tagged Africa, Asia, credit life insurance, Crop insurance, Ending Poverty, Financial services, funeral insurance, Ghana, Health insurance, India, Insight Trip, Insurance, Kilimanjaro, Microensure, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Mobile Phones, OIC2011, Opportunity International Microfinance Conference, Poverty, property insurance, Richard Leftley, Tanzania, Weather-index crop insurance, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Photo Journey of Meeting Microfinance Clients in Rwanda and Uganda
Uganda- A young girl (right) welcomes an Opportunity International visitor from the floor of her father’s shop in a Kampala market. Her young father is an enterprising entrepreneur and Trust Group member who runs a small boutique that sells both new and old clothes, mattresses, and small luggage. Business is good, he reports, and he Read more…
Tagged Africa, Banking on Africa, Banking on Africa Campaign, Banking on Africa Insight Trip 2011, Clients, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Genocide, Insight Trip, Kampala, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Rwanda, Training, Trust Groups, Uganda
Back to School with a Visit to See Education Finance in Action in Uganda
As we head back to school in the U.S., we’re thinking a lot about our educational loan clients and school proprietors around the world, and the impoverished children who are receiving an education because of them. Here, staff member Mark shares what he learned about education finance on his recent visit to a primary school in Kampala, Read more…
Tagged Africa, Back to School, Banking on Africa, Banking on Africa Campaign, Banking on Africa Insight Trip 2011, Children, Clients, Community, Education, Education finance, education microfinance, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Global Poverty, Insight Trip, Kampala, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Opportunity Uganda, Poverty, Rise and Shine School, School Proprietor Loans, Schools, Students, Uganda, Youth
Meet Thomas, a Loan Officer in Moshi, Tanzania
Meet Thomas. Thomas is a loan officer in the Moshi branch of Opportunity Tanzania. When I asked him about himself he said he likes hip hop music, traveling, and helping out clients. His Trust Group adores him, as they should, he is a wonderful man who helps out whenever possible. We talked about some of Read more…
Tagged 2011 YAO Insight Trip, Africa, Ending Poverty, Financial services, Global Poverty, Insight Trip, Loan Officer, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, Moshi, Opportunity International, Opportunity Tanzania, Poverty, Tanzania, Trust Groups, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Empowerment through Microfinance–Meeting Rwandan Microfinance Client Dorosera Mukagahima
Dorosera Mukagahima made our long two-hour bus ride worth the trek to her remote village. She’s the elected treasurer in her Trust Group of about 30, mostly women. In her business she buys and sells goats—about three at a time. She proudly told us of her sturdy mud brick home with a metal roof, situated Read more…
Tagged Africa, Banking on Africa, Banking on Africa Campaign, Banking on Africa Insight Trip 2011, Clients, Community, Ending Poverty, Family, Financial services, Genocide, Insight Trip, Loans, mark lutz, MFI, Microfinance, Opportunity International, Opportunity Rwanda, Opportunity Uganda, Poverty, Rwanda, Trust Groups, Uganda, Women
Tanzania Reporter: Our Day at Arusha’s Faraja Center for Young Women
Reporting back from the recent YAO Insight Trip to Tanzania, Tanzania Correspondent Contest winner Kelly Flanagan shares photos from the community service day she and her fellow travelers spent at the Faraja Young Women Development Unit in Arusha. The Faraja Center is a residential facility that helps rehabilitate young female victims of human trafficking, offering them vocational Read more…
Tagged 2011 YAO Insight Trip, Africa, AJ Renold, Arusha, Banking on Women, Community, community service, Education, Ending Poverty, Global Poverty, Insight Trip, Opportunity International, Opportunity Tanzania, Opportunity-US, Poverty, Tanzania, Training, Women, Women's Philanthropy, YAO, YAO-Chicago, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity, Youth
Embarking on My Journey to Rwanda & Uganda
For one week, our group of eleven will visit Opportunity International’s work in Africa. I invite you to come along on this adventure. Our motley crew rendezvoused in Rwanda on Saturday, August 6, and for the next week we’ll keep you posted on what we’re doing and feeling. We’re going on this journey, traveling through Read more…
